Pappu wrote a mail asking for my phone number. He wanted to speak something urgently. I replied to him with a number. Pappu called. Excerpts:

“Am I speaking to Tushar? Same Tushar who writes on India PR Blog?”

“Yes.”

“So, you do exist. I thought you don’t.”

“Many people believe so. You are not the only one. Anyways, go ahead. What was so urgent?”

“Well, I know I can dance. I am a good dancer. I told my employer before I joined them that I can really dance well. And they were pretty impressed with the fact that I can dance. They felt that dancing is critical to the job I am going to perform.”

“Excellent! Well done!, so what’s the problem?”

“Listen to me completely, I told them that I know dancing, I can act as well and they felt it was an added advantage. I further told them about things I need to learn to become a complete fit in the organization. I told them about need for direction and support from the superiors and colleagues on a regular basis before I become a complete professional in the field. They promised all - because they felt that dancing is the critical to the job I am going to peform.”

“Wow! Go ahead…”

“I started dancing. Was trying to do other things as well. Initially, they liked my dancing but later on started feeling that dancing is not everything. I reminded them about the commitment they gave me about providing me proper learning experience and guidance to perform as a professional in the field. They said, you need to learn on the job. When I started showing some new dance moves & innovative steps, they said its not required. You just do what is required of you. Dancing can be one of the requirements but not everything.”

“Hmmm… so what’s the issue now?”

“the issue is that they hired me because I can dance well and now they are saying dancing is not everything and I can’t dance. So, I am confused. What should I do? Should I change the employer? I am learning things on my own but again I feel cheated. Will I be able to dance again the way I used to?

“It’s quite a common story and I am not surprised. However, I may have some solution for you. Let’s see whether you can dance the way you used to after we speak.”

I am meeting Pappu in a day or two. I am sure many Pappus can associated with this story. If you are one of those and need some help in improving your dancing or want to become good professional, please read IPRB and work with someone who understands Pappu and why he should dance the way he wants. “Naach na Jaane, Aangan Tedha” is what someone said earlier, but I came across many situations where many of the employers are creating stages, where even the brightest of Pappus can’t dance. What type of employer are you?

THINK.

The call for the Media magazine’s Asia Pacific PR Awards, the PR Student of the Year award has been announced. The award is one of the most prestigious awards in Asia Pacific among the PR students community.

The PR student award category was first announced in 2006 in conjunction with Weber Shandwick. The winner of the award gets USD 6,000 in prize money, a paid for trip to Hong Kong on Nov 20, 2008 for the awards ceremony, and a paid internship at a Weber Shandwick office nearest to the student.

Any student enrolled as an undergraduate student at an institute or university in the Asia Pacific region, irrespective of whether he/she is majoring media or maths, communications or chemistry, can enter the contest. To participate, students needs to write a PR campaign for MasterCard and showcase his/her creative and real life PR skills in drafting the same. The entry kit can be downloaded from here. The detailed brief for developing the campaign is provided in the entry kit, but in a nutshell, it is like this.

In the lead up to the holiday season (December – February), when consumer spending is at its highest, MasterCard is keen to launch a financial management awareness campaign that specifically targets women in Asia Pacific. Based on the strategies outlined in the existing website, MasterCard wants to launch a holistic program that helps women manage their finances.

The entry should be on these lines:

Your proposal should be no more than four typed pages, 10pt font, and should include the following six components:
1. Objectives – Outline clear, measurable objectives to ensure success of your campaign
2. Audience – Specifically identify the people or groups you want to target
3. Strategy – Describe the overall strategy to achieve your objectives
4. Research and planning – Explain how and what type of research would be relevant
to shaping the planning process
5. Execution and tactics – Explain your program in detail. Break it down into major
components
6. Evaluation/Measurement of success – How will you evaluate the success of your
campaign?

Standard campaign elements that you must produce (in addition to the proposal) include: one written press release; a sample pitch letter to a particular media outlet; and a list of targeted media contacts. No budgets have been allocated as yet, but budgets will be commensurate with the program put forth. You must demonstrate strategic thinking, creativity and flawless execution in your proposal.

The entry deadline is September 12, 2008.

Every once in a  while, there comes the case of a company that is unable to throughput communication in stark contrast to its otherwise brilliant performance indices. I have sought to understand this malady now and again but a chance conversation yesterday with a known genius in the Indian Financial Services space triggered this post. If you are the guardian angel of the Aspirational; the evangelist with passion, fire and a head full of mindgames, the PR kind, then read on…

Perception lags performance, due to many reasons. The causes manifest themselves in three primary reasons. For a Public Relations, Communications or Brand consultant, it is important to understand the terrain before they pick up on a project that seeks to break logjams in the media and perception circuits for a customer.

Breaking gridlocks and logjams for late entrants to the perception game requires special skills, the tricks  and tactics have been there forever, question is have you ever thought about it, enough to elevate it to strategy?

Changing share of voice in the media and lecture circuit from a inane buzz to the screaming roar of a Ferrari or shepherding your customer (internal or external depends which side of the table you are sat) from the mind-numbing terrors and traps in the media, triggering a turbo boost for your spokesperson in terms of messaging uptake and effectiveness, is what this post is about.

Firstly, an inability or fear of dealing with the media due to a past bad experience can make efforts hard or non-starters. Media Relations is an art that requires constant practice, the ride comes with bumps and smooth stretches, sporadic crises thrown in for spice.  You give, you get, but you always talk! There is media out there that is out to trick you out, will they hesitate to rubbish your carefully build reputation for an exclusive? Absolutely not for a second! Can PR change the game for your business? Absolutely yes! Good comes with the bad, package deal like with most things in life. If you are going to get anywhere, you need to get started! Tell them like it is, chances are that they take risks in business everyday and will grow into the act with a little hand holding from you, the specialist!

Secondly, there is a clique out there as in most other domains, these ‘usual suspects’ then pretty much control the share of voice in the media, and this maybe specific to a beat. The media is most times too lazy to do any hard digging when mapping a business space and again relies on the ‘usual suspects’, who maybe be convenient darling MDs, CEOs and other assorted rabble rousers. Awards: every publication and their mother has an award stacked with their favourites, breaking into this game needs perseverance, a nose for ‘distress sales’, finally being able to work the apex bodies like CII, FICCI, NASSCOM, etc, for advocacy and influencer relations.

Third and last here, is clearly a lack of process internally at the client organisation be it in terms of communication superstructure, even if one does exist, its ability to deliver strategic advice to management may be suspect in hierarchy driven situations or where communicators are too junior to be taken seriously. Some people use external consultants to tell them what is known already as it brings a credibility they lack.

Anyone can tell you that game changing maneuvers are few and far in between as stereotypes and ’safe’ options abound but if you as a PR professional were ever able to affect changes that made a company’s perception congruent with its performance as benchmarked against its peers, then you indeed deserve to be in the hall of fame. If commitment is your destiny and you can help tell a story that is true and ethical but inconvenient, then you are indeed one lucky person!

We need our heroes just like we need our war stories to feel good about the tribe and what it does, so come on give!

The Association of Business Communicators of India has called for entries to its 47th ABCI Annual Awards. There are 40 categories comprising the print and electronic media in which Gold, Silver, and Bronze Awards are given.

While most of the awards for the media, check out the Digital Communications awards that are given for ‘communications to an internal / external audience using digital media-on-line publications, websites, corporate profiles, interactive presentations, etc.’ You might want to recommend some of these to your organisation or to your clients.